Images of Ramadan 2016

Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, began earlier this week, with the observation of the Hilal, or new moon. Throughout this ninth month on the Islamic calendar, devout Muslims must abstain from food, drink, and sex from dawn until sunset. The fast, one of the five pillars of Islam, is seen as a time for spiritual reflection, prayers, and charity. After sunset, Muslims traditionally break the fast by eating three dates, performing the Maghrib prayer, and sitting down to Iftar, the main evening meal, where communities and families gather together. Gathered here are images of Muslims around the world observing Ramadan this year.

An officer of Malaysia's Islamic authority uses a telescope to perform “rukyah,” the sighting of the new moon of Ramadan, in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, on June 5, 2016. Muslims scan the sky at dusk in the beginning of the lunar calendar's ninth month in search of the new moon to proclaim the start of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month during which observant believers fast from dawn to dusk.#

A Musaharati, or dawn awakener, strikes his drum to wake observant Muslims for their overnight sahur, or last meal, before the day's fast during Ramadan in Sidon's Old City in south Lebanon just before dawn, June 8, 2016.#

Kashmiri Nomadic Muslims devotees listen to the sermons of a Muslim cleric as they gather at the forest shrine of Miyan Peer, on the first day of Ramadan, on June 7, 2016, in Baba Nagri, about 44 kilometers (28 miles) northeast of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, India.#

A Palestinian girl prays in front of the Dome of the Rock, at the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as The Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City during the holy month of Ramadan, on June 7, 2016.#